Question: I’ve been watching as NSW introduces mandatory training for strata committees. Will similar training be available in the ACT?
I’m on our executive committee in the ACT, and I’ve been watching what’s happening in NSW with the introduction of mandatory training for strata committee members.
I understand the NSW training is specific to that state. When might similar training, and a requirement for committee members to complete it, come to the ACT?
Answer: The ACT Government has released its response to the parliamentary inquiry into strata, which sets out what may happen with committee training in the ACT.
The ACT Government recently released its responses to the Parliamentary Enquiry into strata. You can search for that and see what, if anything, may happen in relation to committee training, and other significant strata issues, in the ACT.
Chris Irons
Owners Corporation Network of Australia Ltd.
E: chris.Irons@ocn.org.au
Lookupstrata editor’s note: As Chris mentions, the ACT Government’s response to the inquiry released 27 August 2026 addresses committee training at Recommendation 10 (page 13). The government “noted” the recommendation rather than agreeing to it, stating, “the ACT Government does not support mandatory training for executive committee members at this stage. Executive committee members are volunteers, and many owners corporations already experience difficulty attracting and retaining members. Requiring mandatory training may create an additional barrier to participation and could discourage unit owners from nominating for executive committee roles.”
Instead, it proposes free or low-cost, modular training that committee members can choose to complete, which a future ACT Strata Commissioner could develop. So for now, ACT executive committee members won’t be required to complete training like their NSW counterparts, but voluntary training may be on the way.
This post appears in Strata News #812.
There should be an additional barrier to being on the executive committee. This would be a small step to help make sure that committee members know, understand and abide by their obligations to the owners they represent. At the moment the system allows uninformed, ineffectual, self serving and negligent owners to be on the committee. A small barrier might hopefully help weed a few of these people out. And committees could be held to account because they would required to abide by the Act, that they already have a legal obligation to know and understand. However, bottom feeding strata managers and sneaky committee members love uninformed, misinformed and innocently naive owners because they are so much easier to flick off, deny, ignore, mislead and make money from. Until committee’s and strata managers are held accountable for failing to comply with their legal obligations nothing will change.